Cohen: With his UN appointment, Trump debases American diplomacyBack to video

This reflected not only the towering economic and military stature of the United States after the Second World War, but its commitment to the liberal international order that it helped to establish and sustain through the Cold War and beyond.

It is a high honour to serve as the U.S. Permanent Representative of the United Nations, which carries the rank and status of “Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary.”

And extraordinary these ambassadors were – until, that is, Donald Trump nominated Heather Nauert, a television personality on Fox News and spokeswoman of the State Department. If confirmed by the Senate, she will be the least qualified permanent representative of her country since the United Nations was founded 73 years ago.

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How bad is this appointment? How embarrassing? Consider her predecessors.

Among the 22 permanent representatives whom Washington has sent to the UN have been men and women of distinction in politics, diplomacy, the academy, journalism and the law.

Warren Austin, the country’s first official ambassador to the UN, was a long-serving senator from Vermont. Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. was senator from Massachusetts and later a vice-presidential nominee.

Adlai Stevenson, former governor of Illinois, was twice Democratic nominee for the presidency. Arthur Goldberg was a prominent labour lawyer, secretary of labour, and justice of the Supreme Court. George Ball was undersecretary of state. James Russell Wiggins was editor of The Washington Post.

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George H.W. Bush was a congressman before he became ambassador in 1971; later he was vice-president and president. His successor, John Scali, had been diplomatic correspondent for ABC News.

Among the 22 permanent representatives whom Washington has sent to the UN have been men and women of distinction in politics, diplomacy, the academy, journalism and the law.

Daniel Patrick Moynihan was a prominent sociologist, presidential adviser and senator from New York for 24 years. William Scranton, who succeeded him, was a congressman and governor of Pennsylvania. Andrew Young was a prominent civil rights activist who was mayor of Atlanta and congressman.

Charles Yost, Donald McHenry, Thomas Pickering and Edward J. Perkins were career diplomats. Jeane Kirkpatrick held a doctorate in political science. Vernon A. Walters was a linguist, a soldier and intelligence analyst. Madeleine Albright was a professor and later Secretary of State.

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Bill Richardson was a congressman, governor and cabinet secretary. Richard Holbrooke was an assistant secretary of state and prominent diplomat. John Negroponte was a much-travelled ambassador and deputy national security advisor. John Danforth was a three-term senator from Missouri.

Susan Rice was a Rhodes scholar and national security advisor. Samantha Power was a journalist, award-winning author and presidential adviser. Nikki Haley, the departing ambassador, was a two-term governor of South Carolina.

All men and women of eminence. The office demanded it. The president honoured it. The country expected it.

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Now, from Lodge, Stevenson, Goldberg, Bush, Albright, Rice and Power, we descend to Nauert. We fall from the Golden Age to the Age of Dross.

On Fox News, Nauert was known for looks more than smarts. As State Department spokeswoman, she once confused what happened between the Allies and the Nazis on D-Day. Seriously. You can look it up.

Poor Nauert. Her bosses – Mike Pompeo and John Bolton (who was once interim UN ambassador) – hate the United Nations, and she will wear it as their errand girl. Her position will not have cabinet rank (that’s happened in the past), which will diminish her modest influence.

It gets worse for her. Like everyone else in this toxic administration, Nauert will soon find herself infected by a diseased president who, in 2019, is likely to be impeached in the House and tried in the Senate for “high crimes and misdemeanors.” Every day, in the corridors of the United Nations, she will have to defend him.

Heather Nauert, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, will soon learn, in her anguish, how extraordinary her office really is.

Andrew Cohen is a journalist, professor and author of Two Days in June: John F. Kennedy and the 48 Hours That Made History.

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